Counter, Counter, Counter

One of the main reason's that I have chosen Wisconsin's running game to break down is the success it had over the past season.  As shared on one of the best blogs around, http://smartfootball.com/, Chris Brown points out the followings statistics that Football Outsiders have broken down.  It is success rate, which is defined as:  


Success Rate: A common Football Outsiders tool used to measure efficiency by determining whether every play of a given game was successful or not. The terms of success in college football: 50 percent of necessary yardage on first down, 70 percent on second down, and 100 percent on third and fourth down.

Here are the top 10 success rates in the last five years:

Ten Best Single-Season Success Rates, 2005-10
1. Hawaii (2006): 60.8%
2. Texas Tech (2008): 56.1%
3. Wisconsin (2010): 55.3%
4. Oklahoma (2008): 55.2%
5. Florida (2007): 55.0%
6. BYU (2008): 54.8%
7. Missouri (2008): 54.7%
8. USC (2005): 54.1%
9. Boise State (2010): 54.0%
10. Texas (2008): 54.0%
credit to: www.smartfootball.com

It is clear that Wisconsin's offense has been extremely successful this past year.  When running a power game with zones and powers like Wisconsin does, defenses often play extremely aggressive.  This brings us to the third part of the Wisconsin running game, the COUNTER.  The Counter employs a standard rule:  The Guard will pull and kick out the EMOLS (End Man On Line of Scrimmage).  The HB will take two counter steps, and then open up receiving the ball from the QB and following the second puller up through the hole, cutting off of their block.  With that being the standard rule, the Badgers can use a variety of pullers to accomplish the same goal:  Success with the counter.

Wisconsin employs three types of Counters, the GT Counter (Guard and Tackle), the GH Counter (Guard and H back) and the GY Counter (Guard and TE).  They use a variety of different formations to run the counter out of.  An example of all three are below.

GT COUNTER

The GT counter stands for "Guard/Tackle" alerting them that they will both be pulling, the guard kicking out and the tackle leading up on the first threat.

The best thing about the counter is that it can be run to the strength of the formation, or to the weak part of the formation.  This keeps teams guessing on which way the counter will be run.  Below is an example of a Weak GT Counter.

GH COUNTER

The GH counter stands for "Guard/H-Back" alerting them that they will both be pulling, the guard kicking out and the H-Back (or Fullback) leading up on the first threat.  The changes have been colored coded, the guard is red and the H-Back is purple.

GY COUNTER

The GY counter stands for "Guard/Y" alerting them that they will both be pulling, the guard kicking out and the Y(or TE) leading up on the first threat.  This requires an athletic Y/TE to get moving on their block.  The advantage of the GY counter, it that you can use multiple formations to get the same result.  Here are two of Wisconsin's more popular formations to run the GY out of:

AND.....

Through using the zone, power and counter running game, Wisconsin is able to develop one of the best offensive lines and running games in the country.  Their simplicity allows each position player to understand their role and take them to success.  On Wisconsin!

This concludes my breakdown over the Wisconsin Running Game.  As always, check out chiefpigskin.com for the best breakdown of football on the web.  I am open to what is coming up next, send me some feedback, offense or defense?  special teams?  Individual techniques?  Let me know your thoughts...... Coach Hjorth